George Takei on his Star Trek audition and meeting Gene Roddenberry

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Star Trek’s own George Takei will be a guest on the premiere episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Star Talk, which is set to air on the National Geographic Channel on April 20 in the U.S. and the UK, and on April 27 in Australia. Takei played Mr. Sulu on three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, from 1966 to 1969. He also voiced the character during the two seasons Star Trek: The Animated Serieswas on the air, before reprising the role (this time in the flesh) in six subsequent Trek movies. The actor also made a guest appearance on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager.

In the video excerpt, George Takei talks about how it was to audition for the cult sci-fi series, and he reminisces on his first meeting with Gene Roddenberry. He says the Great Bird of the Galaxy mispronounced his surname as "Ta-Kai" instead of "Ta-Kay," whereupon the actor corrected him on the right pronunciation, pointing out that "Ta-Kai" means expensive in Japanese. A couple of jokes between Roddenberry and Takei then ensued (Roddenberry said "Ta-Kay" was fine by him, Takei said that "Ta-Kay" didn’t mean cheap either). The Star Trek actor also touched upon Roddenberry’s grand vision, including the inclusion of various minorities on the sci-fi series and more. Oh, my. Check it out: